


Poise And Rationality

by potentiallyAWKWARD



Series: Johnlock One Shots [8]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 15:45:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16621808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiallyAWKWARD/pseuds/potentiallyAWKWARD
Summary: A ficlet that turned into a slightly longer ficlet. Enjoy. :)





	Poise And Rationality

**Author's Note:**

  * For [allsovacant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/allsovacant/gifts).



John’s face was flushed with a mixture of anger and embarrassment and desperation and a million other emotions that Sherlock Holmes had seen countless times, but never like this. Never from John.

“You want me to tell you why we called the wedding off?” John’s voice was utterly broken, eyes like shards of glass lodging themselves directly into Sherlock’s chest. “Since you’re so curious about it.”

Sherlock said nothing.

“We called the wedding off because one night, we were in bed and-”John paused, swallowing, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. Sherlock’s eyes followed the motion, suddenly intrigued by anything that wasn’t John Watson’s face. “And I said something I shouldn’t have. It slipped out, it was an accident, a complete accident, but Mary couldn’t...” John paused, taking in a deep breath and letting it out evenly. “I said your name. In bed. I don’t know why. It just... happened.”

Sherlock’s brain was molasses. It took him several seconds to realize that John didn’t have anything else to say. “My-?”

John nodded, once, crisply, his eyes boring a hole into Sherlock’s right shoulder. Silence fell for several seconds as Sherlock tried to make sense of the words. “It was,” John repeated again, barely above a whisper, “an accident.”

“An accident,” Sherlock repeated, voice robotic even to his ears.

John straightened slightly, eyes glinting defiantly. “Yes.”

Sherlock’s brain had finally caught up and was making up for lost time, neurons firing so rapidly that it almost made him dizzy. “Then why was the wedding canceled?”

John’s shoulders slumped. The room was silent for several seconds. Sherlock thought his eardrums were going to implode. “She thought I was in love with you,” John finally answered, voice hoarse with an emotion that Sherlock had no name for.

“Are you?” Sherlock asked before he could stop himself.

John started blankly at the detective. “Am I what?”

“In love with me.” The words were scratchy in his throat, as if they had clawed their way up from the pit of his stomach.

John’s face went white for a brief moment before settling back to its natural colour. “I... suppose you could say that, yeah.”

“Then say it,” Sherlock urged, struck by the sudden need to fall to his knees and bury his face into John’s horrible green cable knit jumper.

John swallowed once, twice, posture stiffening as he steeled himself. After a deep breath in, the words rung out, clear and decisive: “Sherlock Holmes, I am madly in love with you.”

Sherlock’s mouth opened and closed several times, like a fish out of water. The air had become a poison that he did not know the antidote to— his heart was racing, palms sweating, emotions bubbling up inside him that he thought he had banished to the dungeons of his Mind Palace.

“Well then, that changes things,” Sherlock finally replied, and when he pulled John in for a kiss, the doctor did not resist.


End file.
